Kern's mansion, Bolerium, looms over Kamensic, NY, "the sacred grove," which is a cross between Summerisle from Wicker Man and a 1970s O.C. inhabited primarily by actors and theater people and their ilk.

Summerisle tells Howie that the Island is the natural conclusion of the world if the truth that God is dead is accepted, that is not neccessarily true but what is true is that it is one vision of the post-Christian world.